Harris camp grapples with anger over Gaza up to race’s final days

At a rally for Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, former President Bill Clinton addressed Arab Americans angry at Democrats for the deadly war in Gaza, trying to explain Israel’s actions. Earlier in the week, former President Barack Obama asked Muslim Americans how they could support Republican nominee Donald Trump when he had repeatedly denigrated their community.

At many of her own campaign events this week, Harris is facing interruptions from pro-Palestine protesters, prompting her to pause her speeches and tell the demonstrators directly that she would work “full time” as president to secure a cease-fire and hostage release.

The events of the last week highlight how divisions within the Democratic Party over the war in Gaza continue to hang over a bitterly contested presidential election into its final days. Democrats had hoped Harris’ more empathetic rhetoric on Palestinian suffering would help rally Arab American and Muslim support, particularly in the crucial swing state of Michigan. But the combination of a worsening situation in the Middle East and Trump’s overtures to the Arab American and Muslim community have complicated that effort, as polls show the race remains one of the closest in modern history.

Trump has worked to capitalize on Harris’ weakness with the community in Michigan, visiting Dearborn – an Arab American majority city – on Friday in his latest effort to cut into Democratic support. While he has issued conflicting statements on how he would handle Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza as president, Trump has told Arab and Muslim leaders he would push for peace without specifying how.

Trump also held a rally in Michigan last week where he brought Muslim leaders onstage with him – even as he has called for expelling some pro-Palestinian protesters from the country and sought to implement a ban on travelers from several Muslim-majority countries in his first term. Earlier this month, Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, expressing support for Israel’s offensives against Hamas and Hezbollah and telling Netanyahu, “Do what you have to do.”

Michigan has one of the country’s largest Arab American and Muslim populations, with about 300,000 people who claim ancestry from the Middle East or North Africa. Local lawmakers say about 80% of this population traditionally leans Democratic, a trend that is almost certain to be upended this year. An Arab News-YouGov poll released this month found that 45% of Arab American voters nationwide support Trump and 43% support Harris, within the survey’s margin of error.

Last spring, President Joe Biden and his top aides stepped up their criticism of Israel over its failure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, but they have toned down that message, at least publicly, in the election’s final months.

The situation in Gaza has become even more desperate in recent weeks, the United Nations and aid groups have said, with Israeli troops resuming operations in the already devastated northern part of the enclave. The Israeli Knesset, meanwhile, has voted to ban operations by the U.N. agency for Palestinians, or UNRWA, which Israel accuses of working with Hamas but which aid groups and U.S. officials say is critical for delivering aid to starving civilians.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza after Hamas militants surged into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostage. Since then, nearly 43,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s onslaught in Gaza, according to local health authorities, and the enclave has become a humanitarian catastrophe, facing death, disease and severe hunger. The U.N. Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk, said last week that Israel’s conduct in Gaza – especially in the north – could amount to crimes against humanity.

Obama and Clinton’s direct appeals to Arab Americans and Muslims underscore that anxiety on the part of the Harris campaign that falling support among this constituency could complicate Harris’ path to victory in Michigan, where polls show her and Trump deadlocked, as they are in all seven battleground states.

But the appeals from Harris’ top surrogates have not always gone over well.

In Michigan on Wednesday, Clinton said he wanted to “talk about the hardest issue here in Michigan … the Middle East.” He said he understood why young Palestinians and Arabs thought too many people were dying, before delving into what he saw as the reasons for the violence.

Clinton said the kibbutzim, or Israeli collective communities, that were closest to Gaza and hit hardest by the Hamas attacks were also populated by the Israelis most supportive of a Palestinian state.

“So then the people who criticize (Israel’s attack) are essentially saying, ‘Yeah, but look how many people you’ve killed in retaliation. So how many is enough for you to kill, to punish them for the terrible things they did?’ ” Clinton said.

“That all sounds nice until you realize – what would you do if it was your family, and you hadn’t done anything but support a homeland for the Palestinians, and one day they come for you and slaughter the people in your village?” Clinton continued. “You would say, ‘Well, you have to forgive me, I’m not keeping score that way. It isn’t how many we’ve had to kill, because Hamas makes sure that they’re shielded by civilians that’ll force you to kill civilians if you want to defend yourself.’ “

The remarks ignited outrage among Arab Americans and Muslims who felt that Clinton was justifying a strikingly high death toll, one the Biden administration itself has said is far too high. Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud blasted Clinton’s comments and warned Democrats against sending the former president to his community.

“Rumor has it the Dems want to send Bill Clinton to Dearborn to rally the Arab vote this weekend,” Hammoud wrote on X on Thursday, the day after Clinton’s remarks. “Do us a favor – stop sending surrogates who have no respect or regard for this community. You’re only inflicting more damage.”

But Hammoud also criticized Trump for visiting Dearborn, writing in a separate X post on Friday, “The architect of the Muslim Ban is making a campaign stop in Dearborn. People in this community know what Trump stands for – we suffered through it for years. I’ve refused a sit down with him although the requests keep pouring in.”

Harris, meanwhile, continues to be interrupted by protesters angry at the Biden administration’s nearly unwavering support for Israel. The interruptions have become so routine that the vice president has developed a standard way of responding to them.

During a rally in Phoenix on Thursday, for example, Harris stopped her remarks and turned to the protesters. “Let’s talk about Gaza,” she said. “We all want this war to end and get the hostages out. And I will work on it full time when I am elected president, as I have been.” She then resumed her address.

Unlike Clinton and Obama, Harris has not admonished those who are angry at her for the wars in Gaza and Lebanon or questioned how they could possibly vote for Trump. And she has repeatedly voiced empathy for those who are suffering and dying in the Middle East.

Many Arab Americans express frustration that Harris has not articulated a policy distinct from Biden’s largely unconditional military support of Israel. But rather than explain why Trump would be worse or why the anger is misplaced, Harris has focused on reiterating her calls for a cease-fire and has said on several occasions that far too many Palestinians have been killed, while reiterating Israel’s right to defend itself.